PanamaMike
Registered
So I did my first DIY regulator rebuilds, a Mares MR22
and an Aqualung Titan(pre-2009). They were eight years
old. I'm the original owner. The Mares had 45 dives and
the Titan 80. The Mares had never been serviced and the
Aqualung had been once at a local shop. I thought I'd
share my reflections on this in case anyone is interested.
The MR22 took a lot of work because it had quite a bit of
corrosion in it. Apparently there was a burr on the yoke
screw thread that cut the o-ring during factory assembly
and then water leaked into the HP side. I was surprised
any corrosion inside because the sintered filter still
looked brand new, I don't even remember ever rinsing it
while not under pressure, nor do I remember seeing any
bubbles while diving.
I didn't have any of the special tools the service manual
calls for. To remove the valve seat on the Mares, the
manual calls for blowing it out with compressed air after
sealing the orifice with their special tool. I used a
small ball of silly putty on the end of a AAA battery
pressed against the seat to make the seal while blowing
it out with a can of compressed gas. Replacing that
seat was more of a problem. I placed the office over
the point of a pencil per Harlow's suggest and pushed it
home. Unfortunately, the orifice cuts some wood of the
pencil so it took awhile to clean out the wood shavings.
Otherwise it was all very easy and interesting but time
consuming.
Before overhaul, the IP on the Mares would drop 15 psi
during a sharp inhale and creep 10 to 15 psi to lock up.
After rebuild there is now about 5 psi drop in IP
during a sharp fast inhale and 3psi creep to lock up.
I replaced both poppet and seat. John at Northeastscuba
is a national treasure.
The Titan might not have needed an overhaul. It still
performed like a new regulator except that the IP had
drifted down from 145 when new to 135 over the course of
eight years. I just did the overhaul out of prevention to
see if it had any corrosion inside like the Mares and to
update the lubricate to Tribolube 71 -- instead of
whatever the local shop used.
Before buying any regulators, I read both Harlow's and
Wolfinger's books and made a nice IP gauge with a
stainless German-made McDaniel dial and recorded the
IP, droop on inhale, and creep of each regulator when
I bought them.
But one thing that surprised me was a noise the Titan
made during first IP adjustment and check out. The
diaphragm was vibrating and you could hear it make a
whistle at some kiloHertz. I removed the adjusting nut
and spring, worked the diaphragm up and down a few long
strokes with my finger, lubed the ends of the spring,
reassembled, and that reduced the noise considerably. I
doubt it would make noise underwater because of the damping
of the sea water on the diaphragm, but I just never hear
that noise from a 1st before. Is it common? After letting
it all take a set at pressure, the whistle is gone now,
but is it indicative of a problem with the dynamic seal in
the balance chamber or something? Though most of the parts
in the Mares and Aqualung are interchangeable, perhaps the
extra thickness of the Mares diaphragm is what keeps it
from whistling. The Aqualung has a small hole it the
metal button the distributes spring pressure over the
diaphragm and cold flow tends to bond the diaphragm to the
button, perhaps it's the weight of the button bonded to
the diaphragm that actually keeps it from whistling. If I
close the tank valve and breath it down to 300psi, there
is not one pound in change in IP on either regulator.
I am glad that I went the DIY route. I don't think that
for the standard overhaul cost of $25 plus parts I could
expect someone to really do a very good job. Also, if
there's anything to debug, I won't want anybody who would
rebuild a regulator for $25 dollars work on mine.
--Mike
and an Aqualung Titan(pre-2009). They were eight years
old. I'm the original owner. The Mares had 45 dives and
the Titan 80. The Mares had never been serviced and the
Aqualung had been once at a local shop. I thought I'd
share my reflections on this in case anyone is interested.
The MR22 took a lot of work because it had quite a bit of
corrosion in it. Apparently there was a burr on the yoke
screw thread that cut the o-ring during factory assembly
and then water leaked into the HP side. I was surprised
any corrosion inside because the sintered filter still
looked brand new, I don't even remember ever rinsing it
while not under pressure, nor do I remember seeing any
bubbles while diving.
I didn't have any of the special tools the service manual
calls for. To remove the valve seat on the Mares, the
manual calls for blowing it out with compressed air after
sealing the orifice with their special tool. I used a
small ball of silly putty on the end of a AAA battery
pressed against the seat to make the seal while blowing
it out with a can of compressed gas. Replacing that
seat was more of a problem. I placed the office over
the point of a pencil per Harlow's suggest and pushed it
home. Unfortunately, the orifice cuts some wood of the
pencil so it took awhile to clean out the wood shavings.
Otherwise it was all very easy and interesting but time
consuming.
Before overhaul, the IP on the Mares would drop 15 psi
during a sharp inhale and creep 10 to 15 psi to lock up.
After rebuild there is now about 5 psi drop in IP
during a sharp fast inhale and 3psi creep to lock up.
I replaced both poppet and seat. John at Northeastscuba
is a national treasure.
The Titan might not have needed an overhaul. It still
performed like a new regulator except that the IP had
drifted down from 145 when new to 135 over the course of
eight years. I just did the overhaul out of prevention to
see if it had any corrosion inside like the Mares and to
update the lubricate to Tribolube 71 -- instead of
whatever the local shop used.
Before buying any regulators, I read both Harlow's and
Wolfinger's books and made a nice IP gauge with a
stainless German-made McDaniel dial and recorded the
IP, droop on inhale, and creep of each regulator when
I bought them.
But one thing that surprised me was a noise the Titan
made during first IP adjustment and check out. The
diaphragm was vibrating and you could hear it make a
whistle at some kiloHertz. I removed the adjusting nut
and spring, worked the diaphragm up and down a few long
strokes with my finger, lubed the ends of the spring,
reassembled, and that reduced the noise considerably. I
doubt it would make noise underwater because of the damping
of the sea water on the diaphragm, but I just never hear
that noise from a 1st before. Is it common? After letting
it all take a set at pressure, the whistle is gone now,
but is it indicative of a problem with the dynamic seal in
the balance chamber or something? Though most of the parts
in the Mares and Aqualung are interchangeable, perhaps the
extra thickness of the Mares diaphragm is what keeps it
from whistling. The Aqualung has a small hole it the
metal button the distributes spring pressure over the
diaphragm and cold flow tends to bond the diaphragm to the
button, perhaps it's the weight of the button bonded to
the diaphragm that actually keeps it from whistling. If I
close the tank valve and breath it down to 300psi, there
is not one pound in change in IP on either regulator.
I am glad that I went the DIY route. I don't think that
for the standard overhaul cost of $25 plus parts I could
expect someone to really do a very good job. Also, if
there's anything to debug, I won't want anybody who would
rebuild a regulator for $25 dollars work on mine.
--Mike
.
